Low prices (an average 3 course meal starts at EUR 10), fast (well, not necessarily pampering) service and a down-on-earth place for regular people, just like you and me (I hope), no fanciness around. Hai noroc și sănătate!
One starts with some boiled șorici (pork skin), fish eggs, zacuscă and a glass of țuică (plum brandy), for we are in Wallachia... As for the many local ciorbas, they are all very good here, whether it is about the rare (in restaurants) ciorbă de lobodă (pigweed soup) or the borș de miel (lamb sour soup) or borș de crap (carp sour soup). Top mains include mutton pastrami with polenta or Pleșcoi sausages with mashed beans (ask them to have the mashed beans served cold, as they should be), a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon from Cricova or from Sâmburești - Castel Bolovanu aside. Otherwise, I would anytime go there for a big, healthy portion of "hamsii cu mujdei și mămăligă" (salted, dry and fried anchovy fish served with polenta and fresh garlic sauce), joined by some dry Sauvignon Blanc from Chateau Domenii. And the finale is just as gloriously not fancy, yet hellishly tasty: a light lapte de pasăre (eggwhite and milk stir) or, for the still mighty, some of the tortul casei (a brilliant chocolate cake your grandmother probably still had a chance to taste when a little girl). Complete your gossip session over dessert with an ancien monde cafea turcească. What they miss is the pre-2010 decor which was simpler and fit the menu better than the actual chandeliers. But hell cares about the looks when one pops into a gifted cook. So stop playin’ and mockin’ at overweight grandma, children, dinner’s ready!
GPS - N44 26.503 E26 06.732
From Magheru Avenue that crosses the center, head to Scala Cinema and from there head to the East on Rosetti Street which you follow for about 15 minutes. After crossing the tramway lines, go still on for about 200 m. and find the restaurant to your right, just before the street turns lightly to the left.
Str. Toamnei 14 (not far from Calea Moșilor). An easier access might be from Calea Moșilor, along Popa Soare Street. As of October 2011, the restaurant did not have its once big commercial in the pictures above, so look carefully or let your nose guide you, hopefully not straight into their kitchen. Or actually... Anyway.
